Mindfulness Of Body, Breath, Thoughts And Emotions

In this integrative mindfulness practice, you’ll bring together awareness of the breath, body, thoughts, and emotions in one cohesive meditation. You’ll begin by grounding your attention in the breath, then gently expand your awareness to observe thoughts and emotions with curiosity rather than judgment.

Along the way, you’ll learn how to use the breath and body as a steady anchor when experiences feel intense or distracting. This practice offers a chance to deepen your skills, helping you build a more compassionate, balanced relationship with your inner experience.

Transcript

Hi everybody, Welcome. So today we are going to do a mindfulness practice on breath. Body, Thoughts, And emotions. So we'll start by establishing a comfortable posture where you feel both relaxed and alert. So take a moment in finding that. That seat. Go ahead and close your eyes or lower your gaze. To start by Relaxing your body, Releasing any tension. And once you feel settled in, And establish a sense of presence with yourself. It asks you to bring your attention to the fact that your body is breathing. Noticing that your body is always breathing quite naturally. We're going to bring our awareness. To the breath. So you can begin by noticing where it feels the easiest to breathe. That could be. . . Coolness in your nostrils. Warmth on the upper lip with the outbreath. Sense of swirling in the back of your throat. The rise and fall of your chest or your belly. Or the sensations of your whole body breathing. So without pushing, Efforting, Straining. Just settling into where the breath is easiest for you to feel. And bringing your attention there. If you're finding it hard to connect with your breath, You could place your hand on your belly. Or your chat. Just noticing the rising and falling. Expansion and contraction that's naturally happening in your body. Let yourself feel the next three in and out breaths. And as you feel each breath, Let the mind calm and the body relax. For the next three breaths. If it's helpful, You can label. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Your mind will inevitably wander. Each time you notice that your mind wanders, Just gently bring it back. Jack Kornfield, A meditation teacher, Often says, It's like training the puppy. No judgment. Simply a kind return. Sit and stay. As being with this breath now. Some other cues for breath. You can notice the beginning, Middle, And end of the breath. You can notice the breath coming in and when it transitions to breathing out. Releasing and exhaling out. You can notice the space between breaths. Now we're going to shift our awareness to any thoughts that have been taking over the quality of your cognitive mind. Instead of coming back to the breath when you notice a thought, Simply name it. Name it to the quality. Of whatever that thought is. So remembering. Touching, Worrying. Happy thought, Scared thought. Painful thought. In mindfulness meditation, We are not trying to get rid of our thoughts. It is impossible. Instead, We are changing our relationship with our thoughts. Recognizing that we don't have to get pulled away. So again, Once you notice. That you're in some thought, Just go ahead and label it. And always come back to the bread. Can notice which type of thoughts have an effect on your body. Which thoughts automatically bring up strong emotions. You notice the space between thoughts. Coming back to your breath if that's helpful or an anchor of your choice. How we're going to shift to our emotional body, Emotional experience. Notice that there's any predominant emotions. Maybe some of the thoughts brought up emotions. Once you notice an emotion, You can name it. Sad sound. Anxious bored. See if you can just be with the emotion. Can you allow it to be? Biological function of an emotion. Last for 90 seconds in your body. And then it's our thoughts that perpetuate. So notice that relationship between thoughts and emotions. Come back to brah. It feels overwhelming. If you don't feel any emotion. There's no need to judge that. It's okay. We're just getting familiar with each individual's emotional landscape. For some of us, That might include a lot of disconnection and numbness. See if you can get curious about what numbness feels like. How do you know your noun? How do you know you're disconnected? So when you feel strong emotions, You can come back to the breath. And you can also come back to the body. So let's shift our awareness to the body. Just notice the sensations that might be occurring. So tightness. Vibrating. Pulsing. What does it feel like to be in this body? At this time. Be curious. Are you cold eh? Can you relax? What happens when you relax areas of tension that you're holding? When we get caught by strong thoughts or emotions. The breath and the body are always here. There your container. And we want to build a relationship. Of safety and care. Some of us might not have as we enter this practice may not feel safe. Can we? Begin to familiarize. To know. What it feels like to be. In our body. We'll just have about a minute or so left. Let's end how we started, Coming back to the breath. Feeling breath coming in and out of your body. If it's helpful, You can label inhale and exhale. As you feel ready. Can lead the attention. Become more diffuse. And start to make your way. From inside to outside. Being mindful in this transition. What is that? What does that transition feel like? What does it feel like to shift the boundary from your internal to the external experience? And then when you're ready, You can open your eyes.